Circular construction element with peripheral and axial connecting flanges



1964 A. STUBBMANN ETAL 61,

CIRCULAR CONSTRUCTION ELEMENT WITH PERIPHERAL AND AXIAL CONNECTING FLANGES Filed March 9, 1962 INVENTORS Auasqr \STUBBMANN BY @AUK @H/WFQ ATTOP/Yffj United States Patent Ofilice 3,lfil,%h ?atented Dec. 22, 1964 CIRCULAR CQNSTRUCTlON ELEMENT WETH PERITPHERAL AND AXIAL CGNNMITKNG FLANGES Albert Stubbrnann and Frank Kohner, New York, N.Y.,

assignors to Kohner Bros, inc, New York, N.Y., a corporation of New York Filed Mar. 9, 1962, flan. No. 178,713

1 tliaim. (Cl. id-31) This invention relates to a construction kit, and, more specifically, is concerned with a construction kit that is specially designed for use by young children, in particular children of preschool age and up.

It will be appreciated that kits which are sold for use by children of tender years, eg from three years of age and older, must be comprised of constructional elements that are extremely simple to assemble and yet that can provide a great variety of shapes after they have been coupled.

It has been proposed heretofore to provide for kits of the character described principal constructional elements consisting of essentially fiat wafers, i.e. thin objects, the configuration of which is dominated by two broad coextensive flat parallel registered surfaces and each of which objects is provided with a circumarnbient narrow peripheral groove in the edges thereof, the width of the groove being substantially equal to or barely less than the thickness of the flanges that lie on opposite sides of and define the! groove whereby principal constructional elements of like groove and flange dimensions can be coupled simply by placing them edge-to-edge in slight disalignment and pushing them together so that a flange of such element enters and isfrictionally engaged in the groove of an adjacent element and vice versa.

It also has been proposed to enable more elaborate shapes to be constructed by including ungrooved thinner intermediate constructional elements the thickness of which is substantially equal to the thickness of the flanges on the previously described principal constructional elements whereby two grooved principal constructional elements can be coupled through the medium of an intermediate element. However all of these previous construction kits of the character described, i.e. kits which include peripherally grooved flat principal constructional elements, are characterized in that the shapes assembled therefrom are essentially two-dimensional. That is to say, if the principal elements are engaged to one another either with or without a thin intermediate element they will all lie in substantially a single plane. Thus'theshapes which eventually will be made always will be basically fiat.

It is an object of our present invention to provide an improved construction kit using the basic peripherally grooved flat principal constructional elements but which is so designed that these elements can be directly interengaged so as to form three-dimensional shapes rather than the previous simple flat shapes.

It is another object of our present invention to provide an improved construction kit of the character described in which the constructional elements can be interengaged with great ease and in which the interengagenient is readily obvious upon mere inspection so that very young children can assemble the elements of the kit into a variety of desirable and attractive shapes.

It is another object of our present invention to provide an improved construction kit of the character described in which the constructional elements can be repeatedly assembled and disassembled to form either three-dimensional or two-dimensional shapes so that the complexity and type of shape that is constructed will depend entirely upon the skill of the child.

it is another object of our present invention to provide an improved construction kit of the character described which can be used by a child to build shapes of increasing complexity as the childs skill increases and yet which is easy enough to use by a child with very little inherent manual dexterity.

It is another object of our present invention to provide an improved construction kit of the character described which is rugged and durable and the elements of which can be used indefinitely without losing their ability to be frictionally interengaged with one another.

It is another object of our present invention to provide an improved construction kit of the character described the elements which can be made at a low cost to attractive eye catching designs.

It is another object of our present invention to provide an improved construction kit of the character described which can be handled with safety by young children, the same being characterized by the absence of sharp corners and edges and of projections which might harm a child.

Other objects of our invention in part will be obvious and in part will be pointed out hereinafter.

Our invention accordingly consists in the features of construction, combinations of elements, and arrangements of parts which will be exemplified in the kit hereinafter described and of which the scope of application will be indicated in the appended claims.

in the accompanying drawings, in which we have shown one of the various possible embodiments of our invention,

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a large number of constructional elements of a kit embodying our present invention, the same being illustrated as they appear when interengaged to form a three-dimensional shape resembling a velocipede;

FIG. 2 is a front view of the pseudo-velocipede;

FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken substantially along the line of 3-3 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is an exploded View of the rear crossbar and a wheel of the pseudo-velocipede;

FIG. 5 is an exploded view of the elements constituting the frame of the pseudo-velocipede; and

FIG. 6 is an enlarged sectional view through a typical interlocking joint of the grooved peripheral portions of two constructional elements of a kit embodying our present invention.

Referring now in detail to the drawings, the reference numeral 10 denotes one of a great variety of shapes (articles) which can be assembled from the constructional elements of a kit embodying our present invention. This article which has been shown is purely illustrative and is that of a pseudo-velocipede. That is to say, it resembles, i.e. has a three-dimensional contour that looks like, a childs tricycle. The particular shape selected as an example constitutes six different configurations of constructional elements of a kit embodying our invention. It should be understood at this point, before entering into the detailed description of an individual element, that these six elements are simply exemplicative and that there may be a great variety of configurations of such elements, additional ones of which will be mentioned hereinafter. However, it is believed that these six elements will make the nature of our present invention quite clear.

More particularly, the six difierent constructional elements herein shown as comprising a kit in accordance with our invention consist of: a small diameter disc 12 of which three are included, a first type of straight bar 14 of which two are included, a second type of straight bar 16, a T bar 18, a curved bar 20 of which two are included and a large diameter disc 22. Thus the constructional elements shown have, respectively, a circular than, one third the thickness of the element.

plan configuration, an oblong plan configuration, a T plan configuration and an arcuate plan configuration. Additional configurations which have not been shown herein but which also typically form part of a construction kit embodying our present invention, are square plan configurations, triangular plan configurations, oval plan configurations, trapezoidal plan configurations, combined circular and triangular plan configurations and combined semi-circular and matching rectangular configurations. These have not been illustrated inasmuch as they simply are variants of the four basic plan configurations that have been shown. Moreover it will be understood that from one to several constructional elements of each different plan configuration may be included depending upon how elaborate a kit is to merchandised.

The individual constructional elements of a kit made pursuant to our present invention are basically flat, i.e. plane, although, of course, they have a finite thickness. Indeed they are thick enough, as soon will be seen, to enable their peripheries to be grooved and to leave on both sides of the groove, flanges which are at least as thick as the groove is wide. Essentially a typical individual constructional element is a thin object the configuration of which is dominated by two broad coextensive flat parallel registered surfaces.

All the individual constructional elements are made of a material which is essentially form-maintaining and preferably is moldable but which in thin sections, e.g. sections in the order of one sixteenth of an inch, are slightly flexible and resilient. Preferably also the surface of the material is slick. It is preferred to use for this material a synthetic plastic which is somewhat pliable. Typical materials are cellulose acetate which has been plasticized to render the same slightly flexible, cellulose acetate butyrate which has been plasticized to the same extent, polystyrene, styrene copolymerized with butadiene, a mixture of polystyrene with copolymerized styrene and butadiene, polyethylene, polyvinyl chloride, polyvinyl acetate and polyvinyl esters. All of these can be prepared in the configurations indicated "by mass production methods such, for instance, as injection molding with great rapidity at high speeds and at a low cost. It should be made clear at this point that the particular plan configurations of the different constructional elements of our kit are not critical to the invention although it is preferred to use simple configurations so as not to confuse a child and so as to enable the constructional elements to be interengaged in a fashion such as to resemble a great variety of objects which the child sees about him. It is in keeping with this basic simplicity that the kit preferably includes such simple configurations as circles, oblongs, squares, triangles, trapezoids, Ts, arcs, and ovals. However it is to be distinctly understood that any other configurations fall within the scope of our present invention provided that they are flat and include the other characterizing features now to be described.

One characterizing feature of a typical constructional element is the provision of a circumambient groove 24. The same reference numeral 24 has been used to denote such a groove in all of the illustrated constructional elements 12, 14, 16, 18, 20 and 22. Said groove extends completely around the periphery of each element. Moreover the groove is located midway between the two broad faces of each element and the width thereof is substantially equal to, or slightly, e.g. two thousand-tbs of an inch, less All of the constructional elements 12, 14, 16, 18, 20 and 22 have identical thicknesses and all of the grooves have identical widths so that each groove is identical to every other groove in the set except for the fact that it is provided in a periphery which may have a plan configuration that is different from the plan configuration of the periphery of another constructional element. Thus the discs will have circular grooves 24 while the straight bars 14 will have grooves that are rectangular in plan. Similarly the 4 grooves in the T element 18 will be T-shaped in plan, etc.

Due to the presence of the grooves 24 the peripheral edge of each constructional element further constitutes a pair of circumambient flanges 26, 28. As in the case of the grooves 24 the same reference numerals 26, 28 are used to denote the two flanges for each constructional element. Since, as mentioned heretofore, the width of each'groove is equal to or slightly less than one third of the thickness of the associated element and since the grooves are centrally located, the thickness of each flange 26, 28 is equal to that of the other and is equal to or slightly greater than the width of the groove 24. Moreover, since the grooves 24 form the flanges 26, 28 or vice versa, the height of the flange in each constructional element will be equal to the depth of the afiiliated groove. Preferably, furthermore, all of the grooves of the various elements are of like depth. This depth is suflicient so that when a flange of one element is inserted into a groove of another element, and vice versa, as necessarily is the case, the frictional interengagement between the side surfaces of the flanges and grooves sufiices to couple the elements to one another in edge-to-edge relationship without fear of accidental disengagement. A typical satisfactory depth of groove for this purpose, the same being given only by way of example, is three sixteenths of an inch. The edge engagement between the circumferential grooves and flanges of any two structural wafer elements is illustrated in FIG. 6, these elements being shown as not quite fully engaged in this figure for the purpose of illustration.

It may be mentioned at this point that if it is desired to increase the peripheral direct frictional inter-coupling between the wafer-like principal constructional elements, the widths of the grooves may be made very slightly, e.g. a few thousandths of an inch, less than one third of the thickness of a disc so that the flanges will be slightly thicker than the widths of the grooves whereby to enhance the tightness of the coupling.

It will be appreciated that the various elements may be interengaged in edge-to-edge relationship as shown in FIG. 6 to form a Wide variety of shapes, e.g. shapes resembling automobiles, trains, airplanes, buses, animals, people, etc. depending upon the childs initiative and ability and upon his manual dexterity. However so long as only this edge-to-edge engagement is employed the shapes are essentially only two-dimensional, i.e. sil houetes. That is to say they will be plane, or, in other words, flat, shapes which have no three-dimensional effect or depth.

Although, depending upon a childs stage of development, such flat shapes may be all that are desired to be made, pursuant to the present invention each of at least several and preferably all of the individual constructional elements, is provided with additional integral coupling means which enable such elements to be used to form either fiat shapes or to be coupled at right angles, i.e. perpendicular, to any other element whereby to enable the child to create three-dimensional shapes rather than the simple two-demensional ones heretofore mentioned. Such additional coupling means here is shown as being provided in the preferred form of the invention on every principal constructional element 12, 14, 16, 18, 20 and 22.

More specifically, the aforesaid additional coupling means constitute flanges 30 which extend from the broad flat surfaces of principal constructional elements. Preferably such flanges are located on only one side of any given principal constructional element. Such flanges are linear, that is to say, absolutely straight, and are flat, being disposed perpendicular to the broad surface from which they rise. Each constructional element so constituted will include either a single flange 30 or a single pair of such flanges 30 and in the latter case the flanges 30 are parallel to one another and at least partially overlapping lengthwise. The flanges may be coextensive or one flange may be longer than the other.

The heights of the perpendicular linear flanges 30 desirably are the same as the heights of the circumambient flanges 26, 28 and the thickness of the flanges 30 desirable is the same as the thickness of the flanges 26, 28. Moreover where two parallel flanges 30 are provided on any given constructional element such two flanges are spaced apart by a distance equal to the width of a circumambient groove 24. Accordingly, any given perpendicular linear flange 30 can be inserted into any circumambient groove 24 where it will be tightly frictionally received.

We have illustrated a variety of shapes and locations of the perpendicular linear flanges 30 in order to show various aspects of our invention; however in all of the constructional elements employing such flanges we prefer to have the flanges 30 approximately centered with respect to either the longitudinal or transverse axis of the broad face on which it is located this being principally to facilitate molding of the constructional element with such a perpendicular flange or flanges.

Referring to FIG. 4, the perpendicular linear flanges 30 on the small discs 12 are symmetrically disposed on opposite sides of a major diameter of the broad face of such disc, one of said perpendicular flanges being longer than the other but the two flanges being mutually parallel. Both of the flanges stand out perpendicularly to the broad face of the disc 12 and extend from the disc a distance equal to the height of the peripheral flanges 26, 28. The space between the perpendicular flanges is equal to the width of a circumambient groove 24.

The straight bar constructional element 14 likewise is provided with a pair of perpendicular linear parallel flanges 30 which are orientated at right angles to the length of the element 14 as well as being perpendicular to a broad face of said element. Due to this arrangement said flanges 30 are quite short.

By way of contrast and referring to FIG. 5, the straight bar element 16 has only a single perpendicular linear flange 36 and this is arranged to run parallel to the length of said element 16. It will be observed that the flanges 30 of the element 14 are midway between the ends of this element while the flange 30 is midway between the sides of the element 16. By thus varying the positions of the flanges 30 on these two straight bar elements we enable the child to create a greater variety of shapes.

The T bar principal constructional element 18 likewise is provided with but a single perpendicular linear flange 30, said flange running down the middle of the shank of the T.

Referring to FIG. 2, each curved bar (arcuate) principal constructional element 20 also includes a pair of perpendicular linear flanges 30, said flanges being of the short variety such as the flanges provided on the straight bar element 14. The perpendicular flanges of each curved bar element 26 are located midway between the ends of the element and are transversely disposed, i.e. at right angles to the arcuate longitudinal axis of the bar.

The large disc 22 (see FIG. 2) includes a pair of perpendicular linear flanges 30 similar to those on the small disc except that the flanges on the disc 22 are somewhat longer.

Due to the provision of the perpendicular linear flanges 30 formed either singly or in pairs on the various con structional elements, it is possible to couple such elements in either of two fashions, to wit, in edge-to-edge relationship or in edge-to-broad-face relationship. In the first instance the elements will be substantially coplanar and in the second instance the elements will occupy a mutually perpendicular relationship. This can be seen quite clearly in FIGS. 1, 2, and 3.

Thus the forward end of the curved bar 29 is coupled in edge-to-edge relationship with a part of the rear long side of the vertically disposed straight bar 14 which 'is at the front of the pseudo-tricycle (see FIG. 1). Similarly the lower end of this vertical front straight bar 14 is peripherally coupled to the edge of the vertically arranged large disc 22 whereby these three constructional elements, to wit, the coupled curved bar 20, front straight bar 14 and large disc 22 all occupy a substantially coplanar mutual relationship. The same coplanar relationship (although in a horizontal rather than in a vertical plane) holds true of the forwardly extending straight bar 16 and the transverse rear straight bar 14.

However, the wheels constituted by the two parallel vertical small discs 12 are realistically coupled to the ends of the transverse rear straight bar 14 so as tolie in planes that are perpendicular to the length of said bar. This is accomplished by having the perpendicular linear flanges 31) (see FIG. 4) which are integral with the discs 12 frictionally coupled with the peripheral flanges 26, 28 at the ends of the straight bar 14. A similar perpendicular relationship is effected by engaging the lower edge of the cross head of the T bar element 18 with the perpendicular flange 30 of the straight bar element 16. Thereby this T-shaped element extends vertically away from the horizontal broad surface of the straight bar element 16 so as to form a support for a seat that is constituted by the third small disc element 12. It will be observed that this disc element is horizontal although it is supported by a vertical element (the T bar element 18). Such perpendicular coupling is effected through the medium of the perpendicular flanges 30 on the undersurface of the disc 12 engaging the peripheral flanges 26, 28 on the T bar element 18 (see FIG. 3). Similarly, perpendicular engagements are effected between the vertical curved bar element 20 and the straight bar element 16 as well as between the horizontal curved bar element 24 (positioned to simulate a handle bar) and the front straight element 14.

It thus will be seen that we have provided a kit which achieves the several objects of our invention and is well adapted to meet the conditions of practical use.

As various possible embodiments might be made of the above invention, and as various changes might be made in the embodiment set forth, it is to be understood that all matter herein set forth or shown in the accompanying drawings is to be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

Having thus described our invention, we claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent:

For use in a construction kit having a plurality of principal constructional elements which are adapted to be frictionally intercoupled: a principal constructional single-piece molded slightly flexible and resilient element comprising a thin flat disc the configuration of which is dominated by two broad coextensive flat parallel registered surfaces, said disc having a completely circumambient narrow peripheral groove in the edge thereof and a pair of completely circumambient flanges each on opposite sides of the groove, and a pair of parallel straight flanges integral with the element and located centrally with respect to and extending perpendicularly away from a flat broad surface of the element, each of said perpendicular straight flanges having a thickness substantially equal to the thickness of a circumambient flange, said pair of straight flanges forming a narrow straight groove therebetween having a width substantially equal to the width of the peripheral groove, each of said grooves being dimensioned to be frictionally interengaged by any flange of a similar element, so that each pair of flanges of one element are adapted to be interlocked with any pair of flanges of another element, whereby two principal constructional elements either can be coupled edge-toedge with a circumambient flange of one element frictionally received in any portion of a circumarnbient groove of another element and with the circumambient flange of the other element frictionally received in the circumam bient groove of the one element whereupon the two elements will be in substantially coplanar mutual relationship or can be coupled with a straight perpendicular flange of one element frictionally received in any portion of a circumambient groove of another element and with 5 a circumambient flange of the other element received in the straight groove of the one element whereupon the two I elements will be in perpendicular mutual relationship.

UNITED STATES PATENTS McKee May 17, 1955 Frimberger June 20, 1961 FOREIGN PATENTS Great Britain Nov. 23, 1955 

